Jared’s phone rang at ten the next morning. He rolled over in bed and grabbed the receiver. It seemed as if the moment he’d gotten to sleep, the phone had rung. “Hello!” he said gruffly.
“You break my Saturday routine of staying in bed by making me feel guilty because I don’t get enough exercise, and I catch you snoozing when you should be here on the basketball court? I don’t think so, buddy. If I have to be here, so do you!”
Fletcher. Jared had forgotten their standing appointment to play one-on-one. Fletcher and Carena lived a thirty-minute drive away. Jared didn’t think he was up to it this morning. “I’m sorry, Fletch, but I had a bad night.”
“What kind of bad night?” Fletcher asked. Jared could hear traffic sounds in the background, so he knew Fletcher was probably standing on the basketball court in his neighborhood park. The park was extremely busy on Saturdays. It was where the area teens gathered to play some hoops, meet the opposite sex, and shoot the breeze.
“None of your business,” Jared said. “I don’t want you going back and telling Carena. If you tell her, she’ll tell Mom, and the next thing you know, Mom will be on my doorstep calling me all kinds of fools.”
“This sounds bad,” Fletcher said, concerned. “Is it about you and Alexandra?”
Jared sat up in bed and swung his long legs over the side. He obviously wasn’t going to get rid of Fletcher easily. “Listen to me, Fletch. If you tell Carena, I’ll never confide in you again.”
“All right, all right,” Fletcher agreed. “I won’t talk, not even if she puts lit matches under my toenails.”
Jared sighed tiredly. “I asked Alexandra to marry me, and she turned me down.”
“Man!” cried Fletcher. “I have to say I’m surprised. I know she loves you. Carena and I have been talking about nothing else for the past month, how well you and Alexandra have been getting along. And after last night, we just knew you two were in love.”
“We are,” Jared said. “I mean we were. I don’t know what I mean! Apparently, she doesn’t think I’m marriage material.”
“What makes you think that?”
Jared explained his theory about his earlier gaffe. He thought that if he’d never told Alex that he was a confirmed bachelor, she wouldn’t have had that image of him burned in her memory, and then, when he’d asked her to marry him, she would have accepted. But because of his past, she’d been reluctant.
Fletcher was silent for a couple of minutes after listening to Jared’s woes. “Tell me something,” he said suddenly. “Where did you propose?”
This time it was Jared who fell quiet on his end. “We were in bed,” he finally admitted. “We made love for the first time last night.”
Fletcher laughed uproariously.
Jared was appalled by his best friend’s lack of sympathy. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you anything.”
Fletcher got control of himself and said, “What do I have to do, take you by the hand and lead you through this relationship? I tricked you into meeting her, and my sneakiness paid off. Now you’ve gone and ruined it!”
“I don’t get you, man,” Jared said.
“Of course you don’t. You’ve been single too long. But there is one thing a married man knows that a single man has yet to learn: Women might say they want to be swept off their feet by some stud, but they really prefer security. What you did last night did not make Alexandra feel secure. You proposed to her after making love. Sex, Jared. Now, you know men aren’t thinking straight after gettin’ some. What was she supposed to do, accept and then risk you taking it back the next day after you’d sobered up?”
“That’s exactly what she said!”
“But did you listen to her? Or did you go off and lick your wounds?”
“I left, saying something stupid like she’s better off without me.”
“She probably is,” Fletcher said. “But are you better of without her?”
“You sure know how to kick a brother when he’s down,” Jared told him, but he managed a short laugh. “I did everything wrong last night, huh?”
“Well, not everything,” Fletcher said. “Hopefully the sex was good.”
“The best ever,” Jared said without hesitation. Now they were two buds talking about their favorite subject: women. He felt calmer. He knew what he had to do. The problem was, would Alex give him a chance to apologize?
“I know I have to apologize,” he said. “But how? She told me that she loved me before I left last night and asked me not to give up on us. But I know I hurt her. How do I make it up to her?”
“That’s simple,” Fletcher said. “You’ve got to propose to her in such a way that she would never doubt your sincerity. And Jared, buy her a really nice ring! You can afford it.”
Jared laughed. “Of course I’m going to get her a nice ring. What do you think I am, a cheapskate?”
“No, just an idiot in love,” Fletcher joked. “Talk to you later. I can’t wait to tell Carena about this.”
“Fletcher!”
“Just kidding.”
After Jared hung up, he rose and went to shower. He had a busy day ahead of him, what with trying to come up with the appropriate ring for Alex and dreaming up an idea of how to propose to her properly.
“Alex, what are you doing here?” Mother Maybelle asked when she opened her door to find Alex on the other side. Maybelle was dressed casually in a royal blue silk caftan and a pair of white slacks. Her feet were bare, and she’d apparently just had a pedicure because her nails were neatly trimmed and had soft pink polish on them. Alex had noticed, a long time ago, that Mother Maybelle always took excellent care of her person, making certain that all the feminine touches were given attention.
It was Saturday night, and Mother Maybelle’s girls’ poker night was in full swing. Before Alex had started dating Jared, she’d been a semi-regular. Mother Maybelle reminded them that nowhere in the Bible was drinking forbidden, only drunkenness. After all, Jesus’ first miracle had been turning water into wine. She joked that their gathering was simply an activity to keep bored women out of trouble on a Saturday night. Of course, they should be prepared to lose a few bucks (they played for pennies), and partake of her famous frozen daiquiris. Virgin daiquiris if they were driving.
Alex stepped inside, talking as she did so. “I apologize for interrupting your game, Mother Maybelle, but I phoned Gayle’s and Ruben told me she was over here. I thought to myself, good, because there’s no one better to offer me advice on a man than Mother Maybelle.”
“Sho’ you right!” said Mother Maybelle with a gorgeous smile. She took Alex’s arm and together they walked back to the game room in her spacious home. The game room had a big-screen TV, a pool table, a bar complete with a semicircular counter behind which were bottles with all the potent potables needed to make any drink you could think of, and a genuine poker table. Not a folding card table.
Three women sat around the table nursing drinks and talking all at once, sounding like a room full of women instead of just three. There were Gayle and Sarah Jackson, Ruben’s mother and Mother Maybelle’s best friend, and Cheryl Avery, the reverend’s wife, who was presently winning. They ranged in age from twenty-something to over seventy.
“We’ve got a fifth!” Mother Maybelle announced as she and Alex entered the room. Everyone called hello to Alex. Then, of course, Gayle had to say, “Why aren’t you out somewhere with Jared like any respectable newly-in-loves would be?”
Alex sat down on the empty chair at the table. Mother Maybelle put both hands on her shoulders comfortingly. “Take your time, sugar. Mother Maybelle’s got banana and strawberry daiquiris tonight. Which do you prefer? And do you want leaded or unleaded?”
Alex smiled back at her. “Banana, please. Unleaded.” Which meant no rum.
Mother Maybelle hurried over to the bar, moving with the alacrity of a woman half her age. Alex looked around the table. “Jared and I had our first big argument last night, and I need reassurance that I made the right decision when I did what I did.”
Mother Maybelle was behind the bar pouring the already prepared banana daiquiri mixture into a large round glass with a long stem on it. “Honey, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Start from the beginning.”
Alex paused a moment. She definitely wasn’t going to tell them that she and Jared had made love last night, but she could give them the gist of what went on without revealing too much. “We went to Jared’s mother’s birthday dinner last night. After we got back, we, uhm, spent some time at my place together, and during the course of the evening, he asked me to marry him.”
Mother Maybelle was crossing the room with Alex’s daiquiri balanced on a tray. She nearly tripped on her own feet when she heard Alex’s statement. She arrived at the table without spilling the drink and set it before Alex. Everyone else was in the midst of expressing delight at the news. But Mother Maybelle said, “There must be trouble in paradise if you’re here tonight instead of with him. You didn’t accept his proposal, did you, Alexandra?” She looked Alex straight in the eyes. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
Alex lowered her gaze. “Yes, ma’am.”
The other ladies exchanged curious glances.
“She probably had a perfectly good reason not to,” said Sarah Jackson, frowning. She was a tall, stout woman with dark brown skin, like her son’s, a head full of wavy silver hair that she wore in a bun, and the most lovely pair of brown eyes. “Didn’t you, sweetheart?”
“I don’t know,” Alex said with a sob. “I think I did, but now I’m not so sure.”
Gayle got up and hugged Alex. “Don’t hold back, Alex. Nothing you say will leave this room!” She peered around the table. Mother Maybelle had pulled up an extra chair, and now she nodded her agreement. “That’s right. Word, ladies?”
“You’ve got my word,” Sarah said.
“Mine, too,” Cheryl put in. “Not even the Reverend will get it out of me.”
Everyone laughed at that.
“Well,” Alex began. “As most young people do, we, uhm, got closer last night.”
“You made love,” said Mother Maybelle.
“Did the horizontal mambo,” Sarah said, offering elucidation where none was needed.
“Expressed your love for one another,” Cheryl said, staying within spiritual parameters.
“You got down?” Gayle said, excited for her.
“Yes, to all of the above,” Alex said with a smile. She should have known these ladies wouldn’t be shocked by her revelation. Collectively they’d had much more experience with men than she had.
“Why in heaven’s name did you turn him down?” Mother Maybelle asked. “If you two are that close, the next logical step is marriage.”
“I would have said yes,” Alex said. “I wanted to say yes, but I didn’t think he was serious. But when I told him I thought he should wait and propose at another time, not right after we’d made love, he got upset and left.”
“You wounded his pride,” Sarah said. “Men wear their pride like a bantam rooster, all puffed up. But it’s so easily deflated.”
“Is there something else you’re not telling us?” Cheryl astutely deduced. “It seems to me that most women would have said yes, even after making love. Some men let down their guard at that particular moment and it’s the perfect time to pounce!”
“Cheryl!” cried Mother Maybelle. “I didn’t know you had a mercenary bone in your body.”
“I was a single female once,” Cheryl joked.
“You’re right, Cheryl,” Alex conceded. “Early in the relationship Jared admitted to me that he thought he’d taken after his father where women were concerned. His father was a ladies’ man.”
“Ran around?” asked Sarah.
“Yes, ma’am,” Alex answered. “Anyway, Jared seemed to believe that he couldn’t be faithful to one woman either, so he put it out there right from the start. Wanted me to be forewarned!”
“I see what you’re saying,” said Gayle. “You turned him down because you wanted him to be really sure of what he was asking you, and not under the influence of some good lovin’.”
“Exactly!” Alex said. “I’ve known too many brides who were left at the altar by grooms who suddenly got cold feet. But when I tried to explain my position, he accused me of not having faith in him.”
“Which you didn’t!” Mother Maybelle accused her.
Alex stared at Mother Maybelle. “I didn’t?”
“You just said that early in the relationship he’d told you he’d never been faithful to one woman. You had the same expectations of him, child. That’s why you hesitated.”
“Oh, my God,” Alex said softly, the truth hitting her full force.
“As someone who’s been married five times, I have to tell you, the worst thing a woman can do is not have faith in her man. It makes him doubt himself. I’ve been unlucky in love. I lost every last one of my husbands to death, God rest their souls. I miss each and every one of them. Now you, Alex, are just getting started. That’s why I’m encouraging you to rethink what you did and give love a fighting chance. If you love him, you should give him the benefit of the doubt. Next time you see him, ask him to marry you!”
“Amen!” Gayle said happily as she hugged Alex again. When they parted, she said, “Honey, get used to arguing. Ruben and I do it all the time. Making up afterwards is sweet though, very sweet.”
“Now those are some precious memories,” Mother Maybelle said with a wistful smile. “Making up after an argument. Some of the best loving you’ll ever get.”
“Who’re you tryin’ to fool?” Sarah asked, looking at Mother Maybelle with a smirk. “Everybody knows about your gentleman caller. Precious memories, indeed. I’d wager you’re still in the making-memories mode.”
“Girl, hush!” said Mother Maybelle, laughing good-naturedly.
The church is alive with energy this morning. Alex felt it when she stepped foot in the vestibule. She needed the energy today. She needed all the strength she could get, because after the service she was going over to Jared’s house to propose to him. For now, though, she needed to be lifted by the spirit.
Looking around, she spotted Gayle and Ruben with the kids in the middle section. Gayle waved her over. She’d saved her a seat. As she got closer, she noticed a tall man sitting next to Ruben on the outside. His back was turned, but there was no mistaking his carriage. It was Jared.
Her legs went weak. She wasn’t prepared to see him so soon. Why was he here? Selfish, she chided herself. He has the right to come to church like anyone else.
When she began moving down the row toward them, she saw Ruben get up and vacate the seat next to Jared’s. It was clearly a conspiracy. Had he and Jared gotten together and planned this?
She kept moving. What else was she going to do, bring attention to herself by turning and running in the other direction? She was resigned to sitting next to Jared during the service. A little embarrassment never killed anybody.
“Good morning,” she said to everyone when she finally arrived and sat down.
“Good morning,” said Gayle cheerfully.
“Mornin’, boss lady,” Ruben said. “Good to see you didn’t actually work yourself to death like I thought you were tryin’ to do yesterday.”
Alex had still been upset about how things had ended between her and Jared Friday night and had tried to work off her frustrations. All she’d gotten for her efforts were sore muscles.
When Alex turned her head to gaze at Jared, he smiled at her and said, in barely a whisper, “Good morning, Alexandra.” His intonation was really saying, “I love you.”
She stared at him as if she’d never seen his unique juxtaposition of dark skin, nappy-wavy hair, honey-brown eyes, and sensually contoured lips before. Nor how he filled out his Sunday-go-to-meeting suit. Or how big his hands were. “Good morning,” she said, her voice cracking. She cleared her throat.
For his part, Jared’s heart had not stopped hammering since he’d laid eyes on her. He willed himself to calm down, but it wasn’t easy. The next few minutes had to go smoothly. He reached into his inside coat pocket and retrieved a small envelope. He handed it to her. “This is for you. Please read it, now.”
Alex accepted the envelope, opened it, reached in and pulled out the vellum card.
On it was written in Jared’s careful cursive, “First Corinthians 7:9. ‘But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be inflamed with passion.’”
Alex’s pulse raced. It had suddenly gotten very warm in there. She raised her gaze to his. Tears gathered in her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks.
“Where you’re concerned,” Jared whispered. “I have no self-control. I love you with all my heart, Alexandra Cartwright. And if you let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it. Will you marry me?”
He reached for her hand. Alex gave it to him. He slipped a beautiful five-carat white-diamond solitaire onto her finger.
Alex hadn’t taken her eyes off of him. “I love you, too, Jared. And my faith in you will forever be as strong as my love for you. Yes, I will marry you!”
They shared a chaste kiss.
Gayle had been listening closely to their conversation, and when she heard Alex say “Yes,” she got up and signaled Cheryl in the front of the church, who, in turn, signaled the choir director, who then rose and began leading the choir in an energetic rendition of “Oh, Happy Day!”
For it was, indeed, a happy day.